C O N F I D E N T I A L VILNIUS 000958
SIPDIS
ALSO FOR EUR/OHI
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/06/2018
TAGS: LHPGOVPRELEUN
SUBJECT: (U) PARLIAMENT REJECTS LAW TO EQUATE NAZI AND
SOVIET CRIMES
Classified By: DCM Damian Leader for reason 1.4 (b) and (d).
Â¶1. (C) Summary: Lithuania,s outgoing parliament on November
6 failed to outlaw praise or denial of Soviet aggression
against Lithuania, but backers of the measure expect to try
again next year. They said their bill was the first step in
an effort to have the European Union legally equate the
Soviet regime,s crimes with the acts of Nazi Germany. End
Summary.
Â¶2. (C) Lithuania,s parliament, the Seimas, on November 6
voted down amendments to the criminal code that would make it
illegal to condone, deny or trivialize acts of genocide, war
crimes, crimes against humanity or "aggression by the USSR or
Nazi Germany directed against the Republic of Lithuania."
Violators would face up to two years in prison. Dainius
Zalimas, who is head of the international-law department at
Vilnius University and is an advisor to the Ministry of
Defense, crafted the proposed amendments. He said they were
based on the European Council of Ministers, framework
decision on racism and xenophobia, passed in April 2007, but
went beyond that European model. Zalimas told us that under
the proposed amendments, "Genocide in Lithuania would also
include the extermination of people based on their political
convictions. The specific nature of Soviet crimes was that
they were based more on grounds of political convictions. We
regard the Soviet regime in more or less the same way, on the
same footing as the Nazis."
Genocide definitions differ
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Â¶3. (U) Since 1998, Lithuania,s legal definition of genocide
has included as an underlying factor the intent to destroy
people belonging to "social or political groups" as well as
groups defined by reference to race, color, religion,
descent, and national or ethnic origin. The EU framework
decision on racism and xenophobia does not include social or
political groups in its definition of genocide.
Â¶4. (C) Parliamentarian Vilija Aleknaite-Abramikiene, who
introduced the bill in parliament, told us her goal was to
have the European Union eventually make Soviet crimes against
occupied countries, such as Lithuania, equivalent to the
Holocaust. Zalimas further told us it did not matter whether
the Soviet Union,s actions in Lithuania were defined as
genocide or as crimes against humanity. He said focus on the
definition of genocide or debating whether Soviet and Nazi
actions were equivalent served to take attention away from
the main point. "It is better to criminalize all such
crimes. The most important thing is to punish them, whether
you call it denial of genocide or denial of crimes against
humanity."
Â¶5. (C) Emanuelis Zingeris, the only Jewish member of
Lithuania,s parliament and Chair of the International
Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and
Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, told us that denial
of the Holocaust as well as of Soviet crimes against
Lithuania should be outlawed. Zingeris said, however, "They
should not create equivalence. They are not equal. It,s
two separate and horrible crimes. The Soviet actions were
based on colonizing another nation." But both regimes, he
said, killed millions of Europeans, including many thousands
of Lithuanians.
Reasons for failure unclear
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Â¶6. (C) It is not at all clear that the amendments were voted
down on their merits. They were combined before the vote
with unrelated proposals to protect wild mushrooms and other
flora, and some parliamentarians voted against the entire
package just to oppose the mushroom measures. But the
strongest support came from the Conservative party, which won
October elections and will lead the ruling coalition in the
new Seimas that convenes later in November. Under
parliamentary rules, the proposed amendments cannot be
reintroduced for six months, and Aleknaite-Abramikiene, a
Conservative, promised after the vote to do so. Still, not
all Conservatives supported the measures. One Conservative
parliamentarian, Kelutis Cilinskas, said the proposal would
criminalize expressions of opinion and veered close to
"political persecution." Prospects for eventual passage of
the measures are not clear.
Â¶7. (U) The Conservatives have lumped Soviets and Nazis
together before. In June 2008, the party successfully
spearheaded passage of a law making illegal the display of
either Nazi or Soviet symbols. While police have used the
law to confiscate paraphernalia from souvenir sellers and
others, two youths arrested for wearing Nazi and Red Army
uniforms at a historical display were acquitted in October of
violating the law.
Â¶8. (C) Comment: Lithuania suffered grievously at the hands of
both German and Soviet aggressors, although the Soviet
occupation lasted decades and is more bitterly remembered
here. Lithuania has not handled its Holocaust legacy well
since regaining independence, and has with some justification
been accused of whitewashing its own citizens, roles in
killing Jewish Lithuanians. While this legislative proposal
was an attempt to require equal legal treatment of statements
regarding Lithuania,s suffering under the Soviets and the
Jews, treatment by the Nazis, the bill,s drafters appeared
to be pushing an agenda of moral equivalence as well, and are
unlikely to let this defeat stop them. End comment.
CLOUD